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River Valley gets second extension

The owner of an Aweres Township trailer park has another 30 days to fix the site's ailing sewage system.

Algoma Public Health granted the second extension to owner Harjeet Singh Dusanjh on Friday afternoon, program director Sherri Cleaves told The Sault Star.

The approval followed consultation with Ministry of Envrionment and Climate Change and Kresin Engineering, the Sault Ste. Marie firm Dusanjh is working with to meet APH expectations, and information requested from the owner.

APH spoke with Kresin this week “to ensure that there was some movement and the process was still moving forward,” said Cleaves.

Dusanjh, she adds, is “trying to comply at least in part with the requirements.”

An aged septic system is the centre of APH of MOECC concerns. Raw sewage has leaked to the surface in February 2016 and again this spring. The health unit is concerned residents could become ill with ailments such as Hepatitis B and salmonella if they come into contact with the waste.

APH originally ordered the park to close by Aug. 31 if the septic system wasn't fixed. That deadline was pushed back to Oct. 1. The first extension followed a meeting that included APH, MOECC, Kresin Engineering, Singh and Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Michael Mantha on Aug. 30.

Singh has taken steps to reduce water consumption at River Valley Park so less waste is entering the septic system. At a meeting in late August, residents were asked to not run their taps and to shorten showers. The septic system is being pumped weekly to ensure capacity doesn't top 50 per cent. A fence was put up one to two weeks ago on River Crescent “to prevent access to the areas that are most contaminated by raw sewage,” said Cleaves.

Raju Singh, speaking on behalf of Dusanjh, said he's “very relieved, especially for the tenants” that River Valley Park has another 30 days to keep working on the septic system.

“We are working towards fixing it,” he said.

The trailer park is home to about 100 residents.

River Valley is waiting for an environmental capacity assessment, being prepared by Greenland International Consulting Engineers, to submit to MOECC. That study will demonstrate how sewage will not affect the Root River. Necessary work to the existing septic system is expected to take eight weeks following ministry approval.

“We are repairing the existing system to today's standards,” said Singh. “(We're) identifying everything that's wrong with what's happening right now and then fixing that all.”

There are three outlets from the septic system to the leach field, but two were turned off by the previous owner, said Singh. The outlets transfer grey water that's treated by the septic system to the leach field.